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THE CHAPTER OF SNUFFING THE AIR, AND OF HAVING
POWER OVER THE WATER IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith: Hail, thou
Sycamore tree of the goddess Nut! Give me of the [water and of the]
air which is in thee. I embrace that throne which is in Unu, and I
keep guard over the Egg of Nekek-ur. It flourisheth, and I flourish;
it liveth, and I live; it snuffeth the air, and I snuff the air, I the
Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in [peace]. That day (ie,
February 21) they name the Feralia, because they carry [ferunt] to the dead their dues; it is the last day for
propitiating the ghosts.
Votive garlands, a sprinkling of grain, a few
grains of salt, bread soaked in wine and some loose violets; these are
enough; set these on a potsherd and leave it in the middle of the
path. Now doth the ghost fatten upon his dole. |
1972 |
Southwell: I am
decayed in memory with long and close imprisonment, and I have been
tortured ten times. I had rather have endured ten executions. I speak
not this for myself, but for others; that they may not be handled so
inhumanely, to drive men to desperation, if it were possible.
Topcliffe: If he were
racked, let me die for it.
Southwell: No; but it was as evil a torture, or late device.
Topcliffe: I did but set
him against a wall.
Southwell: Thou art a bad man.
Topcliffe: I would blow
you all to dust if I could.
Southwell: What, all?
Topcliffe: Ay, all.
Southwell: What, soul and body
too?
Robert Southwell, English poet, hanged at Tyburn on February
21, 1595
Time and place give best
advice,
Out of season, out of price.
Robert Southwell, 'St Peter's Complaint'
The greater the obstacle, the more the glory in overcoming it.
French author, Molière, who was secretly buried on February 21, 1673
J'ai été oubliée par le Bon Dieu! (I have been forgotten by
the Good Lord!)
Jeanne Calment, the world's longest-lived human being; born on
February 21, 1875
A very short one.
Jeanne Calment, when asked on her 120th birthday what kind
of future she would expect to have
I took pleasure when I could. I acted clearly and morally and
without regret. I'm very lucky.
Jeanne Calment
I've only got one wrinkle, and I'm sitting on it.
Jeanne Calment
Wine, I'm in love with that.
Jeanne Calment
The state of enchantment is one of uncertainty.
WH Auden, Anglo-American poet, born on February 21, 1907
A daydream is a meal at which images are eaten. Some of us are gourmets, some gourmands, and a good many take their images precooked out of a can and swallow them down whole, absent-mindedly and with little relish.
WH Auden
Sam is the only person I've ever physically threatened on a set.
American actor, Charlton
Heston, speaking of Sam 'Bloody Sam' Peckinpah, American director, born on February 21, 1925
I'm not sure sophisticated comedy has a place on
television any more. I'd like to think it still does … But I'm not sure the
networks are interested, I'm not sure anybody else is interested in
sophisticated comedy any more.
Kelsey Grammer, American actor; born February 21, 1955 (attrib.)
I guess Frasier and I have always looked for the same thing in life:
being happy and making an honest living, trying to do some good in the world and
changing a few minds if we can. Or at least lifting somebody's burden for a
time.
Kelsey Grammer
Yesterday
I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win.
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Irish activist and former Member of Parliament, who, on
February 21, 2003, was denied entry into the United States allegedly on
'national security' grounds
February 21 is the 52nd
day of the year in the Gregorian
calendar, with 313
days remaining (314 in leap years).
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Goddess of Love and Battle from the region of Mesopotamia (Greek for 'between the rivers', ie, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers), the area now known as Iraq, and from Assyria. Ishtar is the counterpart of the Phoenician Astarte.
Her
name is said the be associated with the word 'Easter', because of her
associations, like Easter, with springtime and fertility. The meaning of the name is not known, though
it is possible that the underlying stem is the same as that of
Assur, which would thus make her the
'leading one'
or 'chief'. She was known as Inanna
in Sumerian mythology. She is a life-death-rebirth deity, daughter of Anu, the god of the
air, mother and
consort of the farm god Tammuz, who is
similar to the Greek Adonis. She was usually described as an evil, heartless, women
who destroyed her mates and lovers.
"In the astral-theological system, Ishtar becomes the planet Venus, and the double aspect of the goddess is made to correspond to the strikingly different phases of Venus in the summer and winter seasons. On monuments and seal-cylinders she appears frequently with bow and arrow, though also simply clad in long robes with a crown on her head and an eight-rayed star as her symbol. Statuettes have been found in large numbers representing her as naked with her arms folded across her breast or holding a child. The art thus reflects the popular conceptions formed of the goddess. Together with Sin, the moon-god, and Shamash, the sun-god, she is the third figure in a triad personifying the three great forces of nature - moon, sun and earth, as the life-force. The doctrine involved illustrates the tendency of the Babylonian priests to centralize the manifestations of divine power in the universe, just as the triad Anu, Bel and Ea - the heavens, the earth and the watery deep - form another illustration of this same tendency." Source
"... in the great epic of Gilgamesh, she tried to make Gilgamesh her husband, but he refused her and reminded her of her former lovers, whom she mercilessly killed or left injured. She reported this to her father, Anu, and he gave her the mystical bull of heaven to avenge herself. Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu stopped and killed the mighty creature and threw its headless body at her feet. They also insulted her, and she responded by sending disease to kill Gilgamesh's best friend Enkidu. She is one of Aphrodite's counterparts." Source: Encyclopedia Mythica
Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days
Nut and Geb, courtesy Ancient Egypt - KingTutOne.com a Resource Centre for Ancient Egypt
Day of Nut, ancient Egypt
In
Egyptian mythology, Nut (Nuit), daughter of Shu and Tefnut,
was the goddess of the heavens and sky. It was believed that the world was
created by a divine act of sex between the earth god Geb and the sky
goddess Nut; the goddess Nut was on top, while Geb reclined.
The sun god Re entered her mouth after the sun set in the evening and
was reborn from her vulva the next morning. She also swallowed and rebirthed
the stars.
She
was a goddess of death, and her image is on the inside of most sarcophagi.
The pharaoh
entered her body after death and was later resurrected.
In art, Nuit is
depicted as a woman wearing no clothes, covered with stars and supported
by Shu; opposite her (the upper area, the
sky), is her husband, Seb, the Earth. With Seb, she was the mother of Osiris,
Horus,
Isis,
Seth, and
Nephthys.
"… (originally she was a goddess of just the sky at day, where the clouds formed) and the heavens. She was believed to be the daughter of the gods Shu and Tefnut, the granddaughter of the sun god Ra. Her husband was also her brother, Geb. She was thought to be the mother of five children on the five extra days of the Egyptian calendar, won by Thoth - Osiris who was born on the first day, Horus the Elder on the second, Set on the third, Isis on the fourth, and Nephthys the last born on the fifth day. The days on which these deities were born were known as the 'five epagomenal days of the year', and they were celebrated all over Egypt:
"Osiris – an unlucky day
Horus the Elder – neither lucky nor unlucky
Seth – an unlucky day
Isis – a lucky day, "A Beautiful Festival of Heaven and Earth."
Nephthys – an unlucky day" Source
Feast
of the Feralia, ancient Rome
The
general festival of the dead kept in February, either February 21 or 22.
Manes - spirits of the dead,
worshipped as divinities - were
said to hover above graves on this day, and provisions were put out for
them. (As minor spirits, manes were similar to the Lares,
Genii
and Di
Penates, and the word also means metaphorically 'underworld' or 'realm of death'.)
Today was the last day of the Roman year in which to placate ghosts;
on February 22
the living were appeased.
Today the temples
would be opened at noon. The Feralia was a religious holiday sacred to Jupiter, whose
surname was Feretrius. On this day the ongoing celebrations
forming part of the dies parentalis (Parentalia) and
the time of religious devotion, tempus religiosum, came to a close.
The Feralia was instituted by
Numa Pompilius
(pictured); by some it was
considered to have lasted for one day only, which is variously stated as
the 17th and 21st; by others write that it extended over a period of 11
days, from the 8th to the 18th inclusive.
"According to
Blackburn, an ugly old woman, surrounded by girls, performed rituals to
appease the Silent Goddess, a gossiping nymph whose tongue ws plucked
out by Jupiter. The rituals included putting incense in mouseholes and
casting spells over threads and tying them to pieces of lead. While
holding seven beans in her mouth, the old woman roasted a fish-head
sealed with pitch, pierced with a pin and sprinkled with wine, and then
drank the rest of the wine herself, giving a little to the girls. The
point of these rituals was to bind the tongues of others so they
couldn't do harm."
Source:
School of the Seasons
Roman
funerary customs
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